Senior Member

Mine pretty much went away after being on thyroid medication for a year. It's usually caused by Hashimoto's. Get a thyroid antibody test. Do not let them just run the regular tests, insist on the antibodies. Also, it's usually caused by an allergy to wheat gluten. What happens is, your body can't break down the wheat gluten in the food. So your thyroid actually looks similar to the body as the gluten. The body attacks the thyroid, you get Hashimoto's. And you drip with night sweats. So, cut out the gluten in your diet and get the antibody test.

Former CEO

Night sweats were the very first symptom I can remember. I had weird night sweats several times, about a year or so before I noticed any other problems. I have then, later, had them very frequently, especially when I was at my sickest. But until I found this site, I didn't realise they were so characteristic of ME/CFS; learning that they are common for us was one of the things that confirmed to me that my onset dates back a year or two earlier than I would previously have dated it.

I also have observed over the years that my night sweats seem to be a factor in "infecting" bedding and clothing. I can't be clear about it, but it does seem likely that this is what makes clothing become unbearable to the touch - not always, but often (I have to buy through a new set of clothing every month or two).

I have two guesses about the significance of the night sweats (beyond what I've read of the science, which indicates that this is a hashimoto's issue, and a symptom of the dysfunction of the body's regulatory systems). First guess is: this is part of the body's attempt to sweat out toxins it can't get read of via other means - this could include gluten but it could also include anything else you're sensitive to, or which has leaked out of your gut. Second guess is: if it is true that it is sweat that is "infecting" my bedding and clothing, then I have to wonder what exactly it is infecting it with. The toxins? Or could this be a mechanism for the spread of XMRV? I've been pondering this idea that sweat on shared towels etc could be a mechanism for transmission of something, perhaps XMRV, since this would fit rather well with several of my other observations.

Senior Member

One of the first symptoms I got when I first got sick was unusual sweating. I actually had to take towels to mop up the sweat that was pouring from under my arms. No amount of antiperspirant worked on it. I know I had this within the first three days when the symptoms appeared. It's not something you ever forget.

The night sweats are definitely common. Twenty years ago, I had a good friend with this disease, a male. And he used to call me all the time and tell me he had the night sweats again. We didn't know back then what was doing it. We just knew we had it.

The only thing that has pretty much completely stopped it in me has been the thyroid medication. When I stopped taking it recently for five days, the night sweats came back in full force to where I was soaking the sheets. After I went back on the med, it stopped again. So something is definitely going on with it.

This is actually not the first time someone mentioned Hashimoto's disease to me. In 2000, when I was first diagnosed with ME/CFS, I had an IGG test and had zerio IGG4. I didn't know what it meant (do you have any idea?) and no one ever diagnosed it, but when I went to an ME/CFS specialist, he thought that at some point I should be tested for Hashimoto's because of the lacking IGG4. Of course, that was many years ago.

How do I go about asking a doctor for a thyroid antibody test? My last thyroid test (a year ago) was normal. Of course, I have sweated consistently throughout that time...

Senior Member

What happens with the thyroid tests is, unless you get the antibody test, it will forever come back "within normal range", even though your body is attacking it. You need to get a doc willing to run the thyroid antibody test, most will not do it unless you really insist. If the antibodies come back fairly high, they will give you thyroid hormone med and it should stop the night sweats, but it's not overnight. This took at least a year for the night sweats to finally stop on me. Try an endocrinologist, they usually deal with thyroid problems.